The need for support: Young people living through a family health crisis

Young people living with a family health crisis are found to experience high levels of distress, anxiety, low mood and depressive symptoms and are at risk of becoming disengaged with education, socially isolated and uncertain regarding what the future will hold for them. A body of research indicates that practical intervention, including youth work, engagement with other young people and targeted support can have a significant impact upon a young person’s capacity to cope with a complex family health crisis and develop self-reliant behaviours. Despite the plethora of evidence to indicate the need for systems of support for children and young people experiencing a family health crisis, current provision across the UK is inconsistent, inequitable and not clearly underpinned by policy intervention. This study sets out to indicate the extent and nature of need of children and young people who are living with a family health crisis in Britain, the type of support they require and the ways in which Hope Support meets those needs

Get Young People Working - The Youth Offer, Final Evaluation Report

Get Young People Working – The Youth Offer is a £3.28m two-year programme funded by City Bridge Trust (CBT). Grants have been made to London's 32 Local Authorities (LAs) with the aim of helping 1,000 young people across the capital not in Employment Education and Training (NEET) gain employment, an apprenticeship or vocational training. The intention of the programme has been to increase their employability, adding value to existing programmes and contributing to an evidence base of what works for this group. Every London LA was awarded a grant of up to £100,000, with the freedom to decide on the most appropriate spend in the light of local circumstances. The only condition was that the LAs worked in partnership with one or more Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisation(s) to deliver the projects. The outcomes achieved exceeded the target, set for itself by City Bridge Trust, with 2,522 participants moving into full-time employment education or training and 214 into part-time education or employment. The individual projects were valued by participants, with a high level of satisfaction among those interviewed or surveyed

Sexuality as taboo: using IPA and a Foucauldian lens to explore fathers' practices in talking to their children about puberty, relationships and reproduction

Background: Fathers can play an important role in their children’s learning about relationships and sexuality but we know very little about the father’s lived experience in this regard. Aim: To explore eight fathers’ perceptions and experiences of discussing puberty, relationships and reproduction with their 10-year-old children. Methods: The paper commences with a genealogical analysis of the history of sex education in England from the Public Health Act of 1848 to the present day. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used as both a methodology and a method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with each father and results were analysed ideographically, followed by analysis across the group. Interpretations were developed using a Foucauldian lens of governmentality and biopower. Findings: The paper explores how synthesis of IPA with a Foucauldian lens revealed significant tensions between the fathers’ cognitions, accounts and behaviours, which were underpinned by an enduring perception of sexuality as taboo. Conclusion: By providing a contextualised understanding of the fathers’ practices, this study demonstrates that a more informed approach to health promotion strategy can be achieved and the implications for nursing are explored

What role should public opinion play in ethico-legal decision making?:the example of selecting sex for non-medical reasons using preimplantation genetic diagnosis

In this article we consider the prohibition on the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis to select an embryo on the basis of its sex for non-medical reasons. We use this as a case study to explore the role that public consultations have and should play in ethico-legal decision making. Until the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 was amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, non-medical sex selection of an embryo was not statutorily regulated but it was the policy of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority that such selection should not occur. However, since 2009 it has been a criminal offence to select an embryo on the basis of its sex for non-medical reasons. We consider the reasons given for this change and explore the role that ‘public opinion’ had in the decision making process. On the face of it, asking the public what they think seems reasonable, fair and democratic, and those who are not in favour of public consultations being accorded great weight in matters of policy may appear out of touch and as wanting to impose their moral views on the public at large. But there are problems with doing so, especially when seeking to regulate ethically controversial issues. We discuss whether regulation should be influenced by public opinion obtained via ‘public consultations’, and utilise sex selection for non-medical reasons as an example of how (apparently) public opinion was used to support the criminalisation of this practice

Giving back control? A contradiction at the heart of Universal Credit

As Damian Green arrives as Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions, Universal Credit must be at the top of the long list of issues he faces – and the decisions he takes will have a major impact on many of the ‘ordinary working class’ families that Theresa May has promised will be the focus of her government. Jane Millar and Fran Bennett explain that, although the new system is supposed to make things simpler, for many it will actually make things more complicated

A methodological review of resilience measurement scales

BACKGROUND: The evaluation of interventions and policies designed to promote resilience, and research to understand the determinants and associations, require reliable and valid measures to ensure data quality. This paper systematically reviews the psychometric rigour of resilience measurement scales developed for use in general and clinical populations. METHODS: Eight electronic abstract databases and the internet were searched and reference lists of all identified papers were hand searched. The focus was to identify peer reviewed journal articles where resilience was a key focus and/or is assessed. Two authors independently extracted data and performed a quality assessment of the scale psychometric properties. RESULTS: Nineteen resilience measures were reviewed; four of these were refinements of the original measure. All the measures had some missing information regarding the psychometric properties. Overall, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Resilience Scale for Adults and the Brief Resilience Scale received the best psychometric ratings. The conceptual and theoretical adequacy of a number of the scales was questionable. CONCLUSION: We found no current 'gold standard' amongst 15 measures of resilience. A number of the scales are in the early stages of development, and all require further validation work. Given increasing interest in resilience from major international funders, key policy makers and practice, researchers are urged to report relevant validation statistics when using the measures

Resilience in the face of post-election violence in Kenya: The mediating role of social networks on wellbeing among older people in the Korogocho informal settlement, Nairobi

Older people in slum settings are a vulnerable sub-group during crises, yet have received minimal attention in the development discourse. This paper examines the protective role of different types of social networks for older slum dwellers' wellbeing during adversity by investigating the relationship between social networks, the Kenyan 2007/08 post-election violence, and dimensions of wellbeing namely self-rated health, life satisfaction and happiness amongst older people in the Korogocho slum, Nairobi. The analyses are based on conditional change logistic regression models using data from a unique longitudinal survey of the health and wellbeing of older people. The results show that maintaining or increasing formal local networks reduced the detrimental effects of the post-election violence for older people's wellbeing, whilst household environment and informal local and non-local networks did not influence the relationship. Consequently, the paper provides evidence that supporting inclusive community organisations which are accessible to older people can be valuable in promoting the resilience of this population group

University Faculty, Colleagues and Teachers’ Federation as Mentors in Collaborative Action Research

This research reports on collaborative research projects supported by a teachers’ federation. We compare research teams involved in the first year of the project, where they had free choice of research purposes with those in the second year who had the subject area defined for them. University faculty, teachers’ colleagues, and the teachers’ federation served as mentors for participating teachers. The action research resulted in change in teachers’ practice and in the development of leadership skills.Cet article fait le compte-rendu de projets de recherche collaborative soutenus par une fédération d’enseignants. Nous y comparons l’expérience de l’équipe de chercheurs impliqués dans la première année du projet – lesquels ont eu libre choix quant à leurs objectifs de recherche – à celle de la seconde cohorte de chercheurs, devant travailler avec des objectifs déjà définis. Des membres de la faculté universitaire, des collègues enseignants ainsi que la fédération des enseignants ont agi à titre de mentors auprès des participants. L’action de recherche a eu pour résultantes des changements de la pratique enseignante et le développement d’habiletés de leadership

Planning ahead with children with life-limiting conditions and their families : development, implementation and evaluation of ‘My Choices’

Background: The United Kingdom has led the world in the development of children’s palliative care. Over the past two decades, the illness trajectories of children with life-limiting conditions have extended with new treatments and better home-based care. Future planning is a critically under-researched aspect of children’s palliative care globally. This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of innovative child and parent-held palliative care planning resources. The resources were designed to facilitate parent and child thinking and engagement in future planning, and to determine care preferences and preferred locations of care for children with life-limiting conditions from diagnosis onwards. These resources fill a significant gap in palliative care planning before the end-of-life phase. Methods: Drawing on contemporaneous research on producing evidence-based children’s health information, we collaborated with leading children’s not-for-profit organisations, parents, children, and professionals. A set of resources (My Choices booklets) were developed for parents and children and evaluated using interviews (parents, children, professionals) and questionnaires (professionals) and an open web-based consultation. Results: Parents and children responded in three ways: Some used the booklets to produce detailed written plans with clear outcomes and ideas about how best to achieve desired outcomes. Others preferred to use the booklet to help them think about potential options. Remaining parents found it difficult to think about the future and felt there was no point because they perceived there to be no suitable local services. Professionals varied in confidence in their ability to engage with families to plan ahead and identified many challenges that prevented them from doing so. Few families shared their plans with professionals. Parents and children have far stronger preferences for home-care than professionals. Conclusion: The My Choices booklets were revised in light of findings, have been endorsed by Together for Short Lives, and are free to download in English and Welsh for use by parents and young people globally. More work needs to be done to support families who are not yet receptive to planning ahead. Professionals would benefit from more training in person-centred approaches to future planning and additional communications skills to increase confidence and ability to engage with families to deliver sensitive palliative care planning